Fantasy Basketball: Get J.J. Hickson While He Lasts

The window of opportunity to add J.J. Hickson to your fantasy basketball roster is dwindling. Currently, he is owned in 59.0 percent of ESPN and 48 percent of Yahoo! leagues. If he continues to put up big numbers, he’ll be gone before you know it.

His signature game came on Friday against the Los Angeles Clippers. Hickson went for 29 points on 13-of-19 shooting, with 13 rebounds and two assists. He let fantasy owners down by going 3-for-7 (42.9 percent) from the line, but if you plugged him into your lineup that night, you weren’t complaining.

I wouldn’t recommend adding a player based solely on one performance. He has strung together four solid performances in a row, thanks to injuries that have bumped his playing time to 31.5 minutes per night during the stretch.

He has responded with averages of 19.3 points, 8.0 rebounds, 0.5 assists, 0.8 blocks and 1.2 steals while shooting a ridiculous 69.4 percent from the floor. As you would expect, he shot 52.9 percent from the line, but again, that’s something you can live with given the other numbers he’s providing.

This surge isn’t coming from nowhere. He had stretches in the 2010-11 season with the Cavs where he put up big numbers, most notably the eleven games in April 2011 when he averaged 18.4 points and 11.5 rebounds.

Hickson is a nice option for fantasy owners because he is eligible at power forward and center. That positional flexibility is especially beneficial in daily leagues.

He is not a lock to continue on this path, but as long as he’s producing, you should ride Hickson while he’s hot.